Escape from Hell

Credit: Naomi Banta (Pexels)

"Sons of Perdition" is a documentary about the small town of Colorado City in Arizona, a community controlled by a bizarre cult known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS).

I read about Colorado City in several books, but this is the first time I've actually seen how the community looks like. The people wear old-fashioned dresses, and the girls ride horses or ponies. It looks creepy, like M. Night Shyamalan's movie "The Village" in real life. But of course, some people might find it idyllic, a little bit like the Amish. In reality, child labour is common, dating is prohibited, and all marriages are decreed by the leader, Warren Jeffs. The cult is polygamous, there are no real schools, and defectors are shunned. Warren Jeffs himself was recently sentenced to life imprisonment for various polygamy-related crimes.

"Sons of Perdition" follow a group of teenagers who manage to escape from the clutches of the cult. They move to the nearby town of St. George, where they are taken care of by social workers and volunteers. The defectors are harassed by cult members who want them to move back. Life on the outside turns out to be problematic: many of the defected teens can't go to high school since they lack a real address, the local Job Corps look like a stockade, and the U.S. Army doesn't want them either. One of the local philanthropists in St. George get sick and tired of his teenage wards after they start taking amphetamine, met and cocaine. The educational level of the young ex-cultists is dismally low. One of them think Bill Clinton started World War II, while another doesn't know that Washington is the federal capital of the U.S.!

Still, "Sons of Perdition" ends on a positive note. It seems most of the teens featured eventually make it, and manage to stay out of trouble. Some eventually attend high school. As already mentioned, FLDS leader Jeffs serves a life sentence, and the documentary gives the impression that more and more people are leaving Colorado City. One of the teens managed to rescue both his mother and one of his sisters.

"Sons of Perdition" is a pretty low key documentary. If you're into action or hefty scandals, you might actually find it boring. However, people interested in cults, polygamists or the darker side of Mormondom, might find it interesting.